Woke up bright and early and packed my bag for a full day's hike. It was pretty nice to have 50 liters of space, because I figured I might as well pack prepared: two different jackets depending on how much warmth I needed, plus a rain jacket just in case the weather turned sour (although no precipitation was predicted) and even some knitting for the bus ride. My host was extremely kind and dropped me off at the bus station in Betws-y-Coed on his way in to work, and from there it was one quick ride out to Pen-y-Pass. The views from the trailhead were amazing, and they improved with every step up the Pyg Track, the first leg of the journey.
View from the Pyg Track
Eventually we faced a turnoff to the first big climb: Crib Goch (Welsh for Red Comb, this ridge is composed of red stone and very narrow). The trail was decent enough at first, easy to follow and not too steep. Then we hit the mountain.
Crib Goch is probably one of the trickiest bits of hiking in the UK, definitely the most techincal thing I've ever done. Part of that stems from the fact that these people don't seem to have heard of switchbacks. If you have a steep slope in front of you, you either go around it or straight up. I found myself bordering on rock climbing in a few bits, which was surprisingly fun considering that climbing in gyms is really scary for me. I got a bit of a thrill out of it and then my stupid competitive streak got engaged and I started climbing up bits that I didn't strictly have to surmount.
Classic example of British trailmaking: "Hey, this ridge is pretty easy to follow! Let's make that the trail. Who's up for a pint?"
Then I scrambled around and over some boulders to Garnedd Ugain (the peak on the right in the above picture; the far one is Snowdon, the tallest mountain in Wales), which is much smoother than Crib Goch and even has grass on top of it; I lay down and rested for a bit, had some food and water, and headed onwards to Snowdon.
This is where the intense super-hiker trail rejoins the out-for-an-afternoon Pyg Track, along with a couple of other paths and a train track (there's a cafe at the top of the mountain). I felt a bit like I did last summer when my mother and I hiked Larch Mountain from the bottom of Multnomah Falls: there was a parking lot at the top and instead of a nice peaceful moment to sit and share my accomplishment with other hikers who had forged through seven miles to get a view of all the major peaks of Oregon and Washington, I had to share my moment with dogs and people who had driven out for a quick look at the Cascades. Here, the top of Snowdon was covered in people and instead of joining the masses wishing to stand at the exact highest point in Wales, I sat and shivered (it was windy and pretty cold that high up) on a bit of unused rock and ate some lunch.
The view from Snowdon: a low cloud front rolled in but stayed just above the peak, so we didn't get any fog
Okay, so I'm pretty competitive, and usually about the stupidest things. Today, at the turnoff to Crib Goch I asked a German couple (well, the woman was German but I called them the German couple in my head) if I was going the right way. They said yes and we both went up Crib Goch. I became completely determined to stay ahead of them, to the point where I refused to stop and rest or take pictures unless they were a decent ways behind me. I lost them at the Pinnacles when they took a long break at the top of the tallest one (which I didn't climb), and felt certain they were a long ways behind me. While I sat hunched up at the top of Snowdon, what would you know but they sat down right next to me! Of all the places on the fairly broad peak they could have sat, they chose my bit of rock. I took this as either a sign from the gods or they were showing me they were going to win this imaginary race, so I packed up and left. I really hope they weren't sitting next to me because they had some positive feelings about me based on my hiking or something, because I stood up and booked it out of there lest they beat me.
Damn Germans even snuck into a couple of my pictures. I have problems.
After Snowdon, there was just one peak remaining: Y Lliwedd. It was in some ways not as bad as Crib Goch (not as steep, more bouldery and easier to scramble up with no actual rock-climby bits) and in some ways much worse (principally, I was out of energy at this point and just wanted to shower).
Y Lliwedd. Just one to go, but it's a doozy.
When I finally did reach the top, the view was even better than what I had previously seen, mostly because the sun had finally decided to show itself. The lake down below, Llyn Llydaw, was a beautiful blue and the whole place just looked amazing. Snowdonia is a gorgeous national park.
Llyn Llydaw; that mountain on the left is Crib Goch
Looking back across Y Lliwedd to Snowdon and Garnedd Ugain
The entire range was full of veins of quartz: wide, narrow, some of them even sticking out of the rocks. I don't know why this is, other than probably something related to volcanoes, but it's fascinating.
A particularly fine example of the quartz streaks
There were other really interesting rock formations: it was all in big flat layers compressed together. Made for great climbing surfaces, full of handholds.
Spiky rocks
I finally started making my way down through the rocks and boulders (again, no switchbacks, just "Well, there's the rest of the trail down there so why don't you get to that some way or another?") and rejoined the lesser hikers on the Miner's Track back to the trailhead. Took several buses back (the Welsh bus system is struggling with the recent and sudden collapse of the Padarn Bus Company, which closed up shop due to a fraud investigation) and one of them was a double decker!! I thought I had lost my chance to ride one when I left London, but I got to sit at the top all the way from Pen-y-Pass to Llanberis.
Second floor bus pic!!
After returning to my lodging, I went to a pub and had a lamb burger, which was pretty good but a little strange. Then I walked back along the beach, which took over an hour because I splashed around in the water the whole time but it was totally worth it.
Wow, you covered a huge range of things these last few days. I, too, loved Bath, and vowed to return some day. New inspiration from you!
ReplyDeleteYour Welsh hiking looks and sounds amazing. Feel like a mountain goat (or sheep)? I hope your robin's egg blue yarn is sturdy, for rocky-hiking gloves!
Julie